King County announced that they are going to close 39 parks to cut $4.6million from the $56.4 million budget shortfall for 2010. Some of these parks had been newly upgraded such as White Center Park(2007 upgrade).

All of the 39 park land will remain open however not maintained and in December all facilities such as playgrounds, toilets, carparks will be locked or fenced off.

King County Executive Kurt Triplett called for possible proposals from cities and taxpayers to transfer the park ownership for free. Some cities have looked at annexing the parks from the county however this would often take more than 18 months.